Using Digital Maps to Reopen Stadiums and Arenas

When the pandemic hit, stadiums and arenas faced closure and the fan experience changed drastically. Fans could no longer look forward to going to a sports game to cheer on their favourite sports team or a concert to watch their favourite artists perform. However, as stadiums and other entertainment venues prepare to reopen, we can ask ourselves: what will the fan experience look like?

Offering an adapted experience that is safe, seamless, and tailored to guests is of utmost importance. One way to prepare for reopening and to deliver an unforgettable fan experience is to implement new technology such as digital indoor mapping. Grab yourself some popcorn, put on your favourite jersey or artist’s merch, and let’s explore some of the benefits of stadium maps!

Find Your Way Around the Stadium

After months of closure, even the biggest sports fan or concert enthusiast will likely have difficulty navigating your stadium or arena. However, you can make this process seamless for visitors by implementing our Responsive Web App which displays digital 3D indoor maps that are accessible from any device. Using indoor positioning, visitors are able to see their exact location from the browser of their mobile device and populate turn-by-turn directions to their destination. With this feature, you can be sure that fans don’t miss a second of the game or concert! Phew. 

Even more, digital mapping solutions make it easy for fans to locate parking, seats, washrooms, amenities, and everything else your stadium has to offer. With our Responsive Web App, you can easily integrate indoor maps through both digital and printed materials used within your stadium. For instance, adding a QR code onto visitors' tickets is an easy way to help them locate their seat. Once scanned, the QR code opens your interactive map in the browser of their mobile phone with directions pre-populated to their seat section. These solutions can be used around your stadium or arena to promote hand sanitizer stations, accessible gates, guest services, a new store, or other important spaces. In addition to easy navigation, these codes can also be linked to external websites such as a restaurant’s online menu or the online store for your sports team’s merchandise. The possibilities are endless, as digital indoor maps are easy to embed with any material around your stadium! By integrating mapping solutions such as Mappedin’s, your digital stadium map becomes an additional touchpoint for guests and helps to highlight, promote, and engage fans with every other service at your venue.

With multi-destination capability, fans can get the fastest directions to their seats upon arrival, including a path from the parking lot, to the gate, and ultimately to their section. They are then able to save their section’s location on the interactive digital map right from the web browser of their mobile device. This makes exploring the stadium aseamless experience, and avoids wandering around trying to find your seat in the middle of a sports game or concert. You can quickly locate your seat again with the click of a button. What better way to enhance the fan experience? 

 Increase Health and Safety Measures

Arenas and stadiums can also use digital indoor mapping solutions to help provide health and safety measures amongst guests. Our multi-destination feature ensures that fans’ path into and throughout the stadium is safe and streamlined, thereby eliminating the need to wander or travel to another side of the venue. This can help enforce capacity limits on the number of people in a designated area. Also, with our Map Editor tools, it is easy to state locations that have closed temporarily on your digital map so that guests know which areas to avoid. You can also remove navigation through these closed sites, including hallways or stairwells which may be too narrow for social distancing, to ensure that guests aren’t led to these areas. This not only helps with social distancing, but makes controlling the flow of traffic at your stadium an easy task. 

In addition to the above, you can add related locations on your map to make it easier for fans to populate navigation to related areas within your stadium. For instance, amenities such as sanitization stations can be added to seating sections to improve health and safety measures among visitors. Further, you’re able to set specific opening hours on restrooms and amenities to reflect when they are off-limits for their regular cleaning. This way, venues can offer an adapted experience that ensures health and safety are always a top priority. 

Generate Revenue and Insights

Reopening stadiums also provides endless possibilities to generate revenue, from ticket to vendor sales. Integrating digital indoor mapping technology with food and beverage ordering systems and wait time planning applications makes it easy for fans to quickly locate and purchase from your vendors. You can also add important descriptors to your vendor locations like ‘in-seat delivery’, ‘cashless transactions’ and ‘pre-order only’ so that every guest is prepared when making a purchase. 

Stadiums can also use our Quick Links feature to connect fans to external websites that provide helpful information, and can help increase revenue. For instance, the link can direct fans to contactless online ordering for concession stands. The amazing part about this feature is that its versatility can also be used to link guests to important health and safety measures at your venues! 

Analytics from your venues can also be leveraged to provide valuable insights on your visitors, how they interact with various spaces, and their intent at your venue. You’re able to gain a better understanding of what your guests are looking for at your venues by tracking searches, location selections, and more. This can help you inform business decisions at your property. For example, if visitors are searching for specific vendors or events at your stadium that don't currently exist, you may consider adding them. Alternatively, you can use this data to serve up highly relevant content, promotions, and events that drive increased foot traffic and revenue at your stadium or arena. 

Get Started With Mappedin

Digital indoor mapping technology helps streamline the return to stadiums and arenas by providing an adapted experience that is safe, seamless and caters to the fan experience, while also generating revenue for vendors and stakeholders across your venues. Fans are able to return to your stadium and navigate with ease, stay protected with health and safety top of mind, and ultimately focus on watching their sports team or artist perform. All things considered, indoor mapping can assist in reopening venues post-pandemic and can help deliver an unforgettable fan experience for sporting events, concerts, and more! 

To learn more about Mappedin’s indoor mapping solutions for stadiums, arenas, and other entertainment venues, or to explore how you can improve the fan experience when you reopen, contact us today.